


Raspberry Cordial with a Friend

by amoama



Category: Anne with an E (TV)
Genre: F/M, current wine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-04
Updated: 2019-03-04
Packaged: 2019-11-12 01:04:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18000857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amoama/pseuds/amoama
Summary: After Anne and Diana get drunk on the current wine, Marilla needs to finish off the bottle.





	Raspberry Cordial with a Friend

Marilla drinks a thimbleful of the leftover current wine. She feels she should finish it off in case Anne has any more bright ideas about it and she hates waste. She drinks another small thimbleful. This is no good. There is an entire third of the bottle to go and if she drinks that much she’ll be as drunk as Anne and Diana ended up. 

She has an idea, a beguiling, foolish, Anne-like idea. But it takes hold and she can’t shake it off. 

She gathers up the bottle and the cherry tart she made for Sunday and she sets off over the fields in a direction she’s not walked for over 30 years. 

She knocks on the door and a young man answers it, looking like a piece of her past, full of energy and an enquiring air to him. She stares startled at him. 

“Miss Cuthbert?” 

“Gilbert,” Marilla says slowly, “I came to call on your father, if he’s well enough for visitors?”

The boy’s face suffuses with a gratitude that shames her. 

“Yes, I think so, I’ll just check, Miss Cuthbert, it’s so good of you to call.”

He runs off, leaving Marilla on the doorstep to be overwhelmed at her own actions, having entirely failed to prepare for the outcome of this little mission. 

Gilbert returns all too quickly, “Yes, he’s happy to see you Miss Cuthbert, you’re to come through and not mind that he’s not got up today.”

Marilla nods and follows Gilbert through the house. It’s strangely unkempt despite there not being much she could call out of place, just an air of needing a bit of care. 

Then suddenly John is looking up at her from his bed, smiling. His face is wan and he’s too thin but the smile reaches his eyes. She doesn’t remember now why they stopped being friends. “I wanted to finish this off,” she says, gesturing with the current wine, “we had some confusion with Anne and the raspberry cordial, and I just thought, you might be thirsty and want to help me with it.”

Her voice sounds gruff in her ears but his smile broadens, “I’d love to, Marilla. Perhaps, when Gilbert has gone to get some glasses, you could tell me more about this confusion with the raspberry cordial?”

Marilla smiles, despite herself, “It was my fault really, I suppose. I left them right next to each other on the shelf.”

John laughs, encouraging her to continue, while out of sight in the kitchen, Gilbert smiles and gives thanks again for Anne Shirley Cuthbert who works miracles without even knowing it.


End file.
